In spring Copyright ©2008 Aldo Gabbay Kraas
All the flowers that we planted
The year before comes up in our garden
The sweet smell of the roses and the flowers
We can smell it in the air
In the summer the bees and the birds
Come to collect the nectar from our flowers and roses
The colors of the roses and the flowers
Look beautiful
To our naked eyes
To us it is a great sense of achievement
That is how we feel
In the fall
The seeds fall of the flowers
And the plants go to sleep
Until the spring and summer
Arrives again the following year
In the winter
We cover our roses to protect them
From frost
When will we fight poverty in America with as much commitment as we bail out corporations. Where are our priorities? MLK Jr. speaks about the link between education and economic opportunities. He also calls on presidential candidates to make poverty an issue in the 2008 election. View the video here.
Harsh Realties of "critical needs" students exists beyond the borders of Mississippi.
The talk about Kennedy's visit to the Delta echoed one theme that I have heard throughout all of the talks: leadership matters. The type of leadership determines the group's success or lack thereof.
If I had only two words—one phrase—to describe Mr. Barnes talk (both of them) I would use the following: passionately candid. He spoke in a straightforward manner about his experiences working in the “critical needs” areas in the Delta. I took away a few key comments that all future teachers should know, especially those individuals who plan to teach children from poverty-stricken environments.
1. YOU set the stage from day 1.
One of the most (if not the most important preparation) for a successful school year is classroom management. Mr. Barnes instructed the first years, “If you do not gain control over your class within the first two days of school” then you’re in trouble. “The students will test you.” You have heard the saying, “If you give them an inch they’ll take a yard.” The discipline, teaching and learning begins with YOU, “the teacher,” he repeatedly stated for emphasis as the teachers sat listening like perfectly behaved students.
2. Do not assume or stereotype your students. But ask, “Why?”
A few weeks ago I had a candid conversation about a post a Corps Teacher from the class of 2007 posted. You can find his post here. I also responded to his post here. To make a long story short Mr. Barnes said that he could not understand why some students would fall asleep in school, put their head down, act out, or behave in a manner inappropriate for school until he learned of the devastating affects and effects that poverty has on children.[1] Do not assume that the student is lazy, apathetic, or dumb, or ignorant. Ask the student, “Why are you …” Children who live in poverty lack culture, discipline, formal language, socialization, and other skills the middle and wealthy classes take for granted. You, MTC teachers, bring culture to the Delta. Please do not penalize a student by subjugating him/her to assumptions or stereotypes that you may have about Blacks (they are lazy, rude, scary) because, as Mr. Barnes said, students who live in poverty, Black, White, Indian, Asian and others, behave in an uncultured manner; it is poverty, not race, that facilities lack of knowledge about middle class norms. Rather than blame the student for what s/he does not know teach the student the appropriate way.
3. Become a part of the community.
Coach a sport, an after school program, shop at their grocery store, visit their church, go to school games, what ever it is that you do, “Get involved” in the community: That is where you will see with your own eyes the real lives of these students.
4. Never break the trust that you have earned.
You could break the trust that it took a year or so to build in one act. These “critical needs” students are survivors. That is their mentality Mr. Barnes said: they’ve got to survive on the bus coming to school; they’ve survive going home; many times they’ve got to survive in the home. Imagine how devastating would it be to survive a bond broken by someone he or she opened himself or herself up to? Imagine how long it would take before another “other” could be trusted again? Or, would be trusted again?
5. You have to love your students.
Not the paternalistic “love” that American slave owners claimed they possessed for their human property, nor the “love” that White Mississippians claimed to have for the Black Mississippians whom they separated via de sure and de facto segregation. But, teachers must display an empathic love. A love that shows, yes I am the teacher but I respect you, the student, I understand that you have to work to help pay the bills because your mother is sick, I understand that have to baby sit your sister and brother as if you were the parent, I understand that you have to say awake because your mother’s boyfriend (who is the same age as your mother and both of them are twelve years older than you) tries to sleep with you, I understand that you have no food to eat because your mother sells the welfare card to the drug dealer, I understand. You, as the teacher must love, and show tough love when necessary, so that they will believe you, the teacher, when you say, “The cycle of poverty and hopelessness can and will stop with you but you have got to work and work hard and persevere. You have got to be resilient.”
[1] Please see Dr. Ruby Payne’s A Framework for Understanding Poverty for more information about the culture of poverty. Since the Delta dynamics include generational poverty that results from slavery I recommend Dr. Joy Leary's Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing.
Ben assigned a post topic: to post about any topic. This post is a response to smeargle777's page found here. He wrote about sterotyping. My response begins:
It takes a lot of courage to admit to others that you began stereotyping the young African Americans. The youth are different from you, as your mother said because of cultural experiences. For the most part they lack support systems, the system that you had. The African America youth that you teach, the same youth who live at or below the poverty level, exemplify who Dr. Ruby Payne identifies as children in the cycle of generational poverty. Her book A Framework for Understanding Poverty is a good resource for you. If you have already read it it may be worth a re-reading.
Just a thought: Have you every thought that your students can sense how you were beginning to feel about them and how you feel about them? Perhaps they want to see if you are "different" than the other teachers who think, "I will teach in poor African American students." Have you ever thought that this mindset elicits feelings distrust by the students for you because you resemble other teacher. Also, the students know how society views them. Racism and discrimination, though many do not like to talk about it because it is uncomfortable, is real for them. Have you ever thought that the students are skeptical of you because of your skin color?
If you are genuine about helping your students then you must earn their trust and respect. You mentioned that your African American students are "instantly defensive, disrespectful and hypocritical in the way they act and [your] reaction to them (especially in contrast to [B]lack teachers contrast that they have)..." I think that your observation her is noteworthy because it reveals the dynamic of your relationship with the students compared to the relationship of African American teachers with the students. Have you thought that perhaps their skepticism and disrespect of you stems from their memory of relationships between African Americans and non-African Americans? The African American experience is America is unique to African Americans, no other group has experienced chattel slavery, survived dehumanization yet your skin color signifies your ancestors' experiences. W.E.B. Du Bois mentions this "twoness," living within "the viel," and "double consciousness" in his The Souls of Black Folk. He writes that the "problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color-line." In some areas of the country a blurring of the color-line exists but, as you know, in Mississippi the color-line is overtly pronounced.
We must admit to the realities African Americans face. Yes, it is uncomfortable to discuss race in America. But until we are willing to have an honest dialogue about differing racial experiences and how America's past has shaped her present progress will be slow, if not standstill.
At the end of Mrs. Barksdale's talk she said, "There are a million Williams* out there." Mrs. Barksdale has tutored William since 5th grade, and though she does not believe that William needs her assistance academically she remains as steadfast figure in his life. Children in similar straights as William today become adults the adults of tomorrow. Children who were in similar straights as William yesterday are the adults of today. William's life experiences, growing in an unhealthy environment, aside from his interaction with Mrs. Barksdale, affects and effects not just William but society. William suffers from child abuse. I am not speaking of abuse in a physical sense but child neglect. In an interview that I conducted with Dr. Leigh yesterday she said that child neglect is a form of child abuse. I though, "Ummm, that makes sense." But the more I thought about child abuse as child neglect and vice versa I decided to look up both words.
An award-winning reporter asked me the above question after she communicated with the interns about the field of journalism. She touched on topics including the role of the media as it relates to informing audiences, creating an environment in which social change occurs and the importance of citizens reaching out and speaking to the media. I am not sure if my post will be politically correct but I know that it is my truth after thinking, theorizing and reflecting on our dialogue. (By “our” I mean as a group and my one on one conversation with her after she spoke with, and perhaps sometimes to us.) The simple answer to this above question is not ever. Now keep in mind that we are speaking within the context of the Mississippi Delta, a place where Cotton was King.[1] Capitalists raked in enormous profits because they had free labor, slave labor—Africans whose descendents we identify as African American. I listened to her news story about public education, the problems poor students face, and the flicker of hope that the MTC provides to this population in the Mississippi Delta. After listening to this reporter’s award-winning news story and communicating with her about her profession I began thinking: why was this story selected to receive the award. Was it the story, how she packaged the story or a combination of both. By “the story” I mean the geography, the characters, the narration of events, and the events themselves? Or, was it the politics surrounding the story. For example, was it politically correct to award such a story about minorities in the Delta who are both visible but invisible? On the surface some may think that that I am overanalyzing, perhaps even criticizing the journalist, the news outlet or both. And perhaps they are correct but regardless of what anyone thinks journalists, intellectuals, and conscious citizens must be critical of themselves and one another. This is one reason why in journalism there is a Code of Ethics,[2] and why responsible citizens understand the essentialness of integrity. During her talk, the journalist asked us about our opinion of a James Madison quote: “To the [free] press alone… the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.”[3] She also mentions something about the free press. Then turning to me she asked, “What do you think of [Madison’s] quote?” I said, “First, the press is not free,” I responded and then I continued, “The press is not wholeheartedly responsible for the social progress” because social progress is a combination of grassroots movements, leadership and the press. Since this journalist reports within these community I though it appropriate to support my thoughts with information from the Radio Television News Directors Association. Radio Television News Directors Association, a professional organization for journalist nicely sums up the purpose of not only but community journalism: “Community Journalism is grounded in the concept that news organizations have a responsibility not just to report on local issues but, through their coverage, to actively facilitate their debate and resolution. Local news media can cover issues of local importance in ways that encourage active dialogue on the issues…This is journalism at the highest level: finding and raising issues of great interest to local viewers and listeners; developing stories and other creative coverage; and providing information and a catalyst for debate.”[4] The journalists responsibly is to inform and educate, not assume that information such as the area in the Delta where there are large African American communities were formally plantations. And in some places of the Delta, such as Washington County each white family owned about 81 slaves at the start of the Civil War.[5] And we know that laws prohibited blacks from book learning, as some called it, because education threatened the status quo. This is the fact that some imagined African Americans inferior to Whites. Some argue that the year century from Emancipation until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was worse than slavery for African Americans.[6] Jim Crow, Black Codes, and the convict leasing system almost cemented African Americans to worse than second-class citizens. More literally, African Americans were not citizens, but three-fifths of a person. Now, let me fast forward to my point. We know that the education level of a mother almost guarantees the educational level of the child. I have been here a little over a week and learned that generation after generation after generation of African American women, the descents of slaves, have been victimized by illiteracy. And the state was a major player ensuring that African Americans remain illiterate. Knowing this should we then have to wonder why poverty flourishes within the Delta? Some may know these facts but not all and for those within the audience not making these connections, I think that the journalist must explicated state what’s at stake for the people who live in this community, which mean provide facts about slavery, stats about poverty the correlation with incarceration, teen pregnancy, and what all this mean for our county. Tell the audience why they should care. Tell them the implications for them. This, I think, will open the eyes and ears of the public and make them pay attention. At the very least it should persuade them to empathize with, not demonize, this population. This population of impoverished Americans in the Delta face social, economic, psychological and social issues that are hard to wrap you head around unless you truly understand the culture of poverty. Paul E. Peterson and William G. Howell, the authors of The Education Gap: Vouchers and Urban Schools, quote Nicholas Lemann on this phenomenon. Lemann, dean and Henry R. Luce Professor at The Journalism School of Columbia University, echoes my claim: “a major impediment to achievement of poor children is ‘their parents’ impoverishment, poor education, lax disciple and scant interest in education’ it is absurd to think that the same parents will become ‘tough, savvy, demanding education consumer’ once they have the right to choose.” Lemann discusses a poor parents ability to choose the ‘right’ school for their child if the government provides them with a voucher but the same logic applies. If the parent has the savvy to choose the right school then this same parent should demand and ensure that their child receives a quality education at the public school the child attends. Journalists have power to shape and inform public perception and interest. The award-winning journalist’s story was noteworthy she spoke about what is rather than speaking about why it is. Furthermore, I would like to hear more journalists not only speaking about what and why a situation is but what that means for me and the world around me. So the answer to my question: one should never be forced to separate him/herself from their lineage. For some generational ties stretch to the 1700s before the uniting of the states. MTC has two interns, one has roots in Germany and the other has roots in Italy. The intern from Germany said that a town in Philadelphia is named after her ancestors and within a thirty-mile radius families—men, women and children—possess her last name. The other intern said that she went to Ellis Island in New York and can see where her ancestors signed their names in the 1730s. For the African Americans living in the Delta their roots begin in Africa and pass through the Middle Passage. Once they landed on American soil African slaves were bought and sold at the pleasure of slave owners. In 1860 Mississippi had 436,631 slaves and the majority worked the fertile Delta land.[7] People we represent many things. There is not one identifying factor that captures the whole person. Let me be clear, I am not saying that all African Americans living in the poverty stricken areas of the Mississippi Delta are descendants of slaves but data suggests a majority of the African Americans in the Delta are descendants of slaves. For the journalist to ask me "At what point do you stop being descendants of slaves?" suggests that she lacks an understanding about this population, which causes her to simply report the news, as is. I doubt that she would ask either of the two interns at what point will you disassociate from you German or Italian heritage. Generally speaking, I think that when it comes to talking about slavery and African Americans and the State of Black America there is a double standard. Do you think that the journalist would ask: At what point do you stop being German or Italian? At what point do you stop identifying with your ancestry. Do you think that is an odd question to ask someone? If so, should we use the same logic and not ask African American's in the Delta this question? (For emphasis: many of whom face generational poverty because of slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow that the State legitimated through legislation. Only proper education will break the cycle of poverty and the alleged "apathy.") I will end with three quotes that I find applicable to journalism, education and poverty. Warren Buffet: "The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. [For] to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the better the student body." Bill Moyers: “There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle.” Latisha Wilson: “Many journalists move the dirt around—they professionalize in knowing a little bit about a lot of topics but don’t take the time to dig below the surface. Only when journalists examine the root will they understand the tree.” Godspeed. [1] For more information about the economy of cotton read. David Christy. Cotton is King [2] For more on journalism ethics please see http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp [4]Community Journalism Project. Radio Television News Directors Association. http://www.rtnda.org/pages/media_items/community-journalism-project284.php?id=284 [5]Michael Johnston. In the Deep Heart’s Core. Grove Press: New York, 2002, p. 146. [7]Historical Census Browser. University of Virginia Library. http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/php/state.php Suggested Reading: Joy DeGury Leary. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing. Ruby K. Payne. A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Randall Robinson. The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks.
